Our Podcast
Class Spotlight: SP316/SW200
In Block 3, Dr. Karen Roybal and Dr. Carrie Ruiz taught a cross-listed Spanish and Southwest Studies class: New Mexican Culture and Identity through the Performative Arts (SP316/SW200). This episode highlights the voices of the professors, as well as students: Leo Fries, Diana Buda, Annette Leyva, and Ella Eskenazi.
We used clips collected by Lucie Raphael in the field: Brenda Romero singing Los Comanchitos with the students of the course, Tessa Cordova singing Echale Cinco al Piano, Tessa Cordova singing Ala Ru Ala Me, and Tessa Cordova singing Bienvenidos Pastores.
Special thanks to the groups who shared their final projects with us so that we could include them in this episode: Anayely Reyes-Trejo, Ella Eskenazi, Matthew Nesselrodt, and Hunter Burge for creating their soundscape “Whispers Through Time”. And to Leo Fries, Diana Buda, Robin Bahrami, Shira Rosenthal for their project, “Branching Out: How songs change over time”.
Minisodes
Students from Dr. Santiago Guerra's third block class, SW252: Marijuana Movement and Cannabis Culture, put together mini podcast episodes from researching what they learned about in class.
CC– Cannabis Campus: This episode was made by Olivia, Max, Gabby, Violet, and George.
Leah Davis Witherow Interview
Leah Davis Witherow is the Curator of History for the Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum. She graduated with a B.A. in History and a Certificate in Eastern European and Russian Studies from California State University, Long Beach. She also has an M.A. in History from University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. Additionally, she has taught American History at UCCS since 2000, specializing in the history of Colorado, the Progressive Era, Labor and Women. In 2014 she was selected as the UCCS College of Letters, Arts and Sciences Outstanding Lecturer of the Year, and in 2018 was selected as a “Woman of Influence” by the Colorado Springs Business Journal.
Check out the Pioneer’s Museum at 215 S Tejon St, Colorado Springs, CO 80903. The story of us is on the Pioneer’s Museum Website: https://www.cspm.org/exhibits/the-story-of-us/. You can email Leah at: Leah.Witherow@coloradosprings.gov
Hulbert Center Update – Fall 2021
Alex Chávez Interview
Alex E. Chávez is the Nancy O'Neill Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Notre Dame where he is also a faculty fellow of the Institute for Latino Studies. He is published widely, including in the Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, Latino Studies, and the Latin American Music Review. His book, Sounds of Crossing: Music, Migration, and the Aural Poetics of Huapango Arribeño published by Duke University Press in 2017, is a recipient of three book awards. These awards include the Alan Merriam Prize from the Society for Ethnomusicology, the Society for Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology Book Prize, and the Association of Latina and Latino Anthropologists Book Award.
In 2016, he served as lead producer of a Smithsonian Folkways recording of huapango arribeño entitled Serrano de Corazón for inclusion in the world-renowned Tradiciones music series. An accomplished musician and multi-instrumentalist, Chávez has recorded and toured with his own music projects, composed documentary scores, and collaborated with acclaimed artists including Antibalas, Grammy Award-winners Quetzal and Grupo Fantasma, and Latin Grammy Award-nominated Sones de México. At present, he serves as a Governor for the Chicago Chapter Board of the Recording Academy.
On this episode, we talk with Alex about his work and, in particular, his recent publication, Gender, Ethnonationalism, and the Anti-Mexicanist Trope, published in the Journal of American Folklore.
Andrew Curley Interview
Dr. Andrew Curley is an Assistant Professor at the school of Geography, Development, and Environment at The University of Arizona. His research focuses on the everyday incorporation of Indigenous nations into colonial economies. Dr. Curley’s publications build on ethnographic research and speak to how Indigenous communities understand coal, energy, land, water, infrastructure, and development in an era of energy transition and climate change.Virginia Palacios Interview
Virginia Palacios is the executive director of Omission Shift, a new nonprofit organization created to reform oil and gas oversight in Texas. Before this, Virginia was the principal at VP Environmental, an environmental science and policy consulting firm. She holds a Bachelor of Science in aeronautical science from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and a Master of Environmental Management degree from Duke University with a concentration in Global Environmental Change. In this episode, Palacios discusses her work on environmental concerns of the South Texas border, the health and well-being of border residents before and during the pandemic, and the role of gas and oil production on border community health and the environment.
Arlene Dávila Q & A
The Hulbert Center for Southwest Studies had a conversation on Latinx Art with Dr. Arlene Dávila, author of the recent book Latinx Art: Artists, Markets and Politics. Arlene Dávila is a recognized public intellectual focusing on questions of cultural equity and a leader in the field of Latinx and critical race studies. She is the author of six books focusing on Latinx cultural politics spanning the media, urban politics, museums, and contemporary art markets, all characterized by a rigorous global and political economic perspective. A Professor of Anthropology and American Studies at New York University, she is also the founding director of the Latinx Project.
This conversation originally occurred on Zoom and the recording of that can be found on our YouTube channel.
Michael Méndez Interview
Professor Michael Méndez is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Planning and Policy at the University of California, Irvine. Dr. Méndez’s award-winning book, “Climate Change from the Streets,” published by Yale University Press, provides an analysis of the contentious politics of incorporating environmental justice into global climate change policy. He also recently published a new article in the journal of Geoforum, "The (in)visible victims of disaster: Understanding the vulnerability of undocumented Latino/a and indigenous immigrants."
His twitter: @MikeMendezPhD .
Gabriella Sanchez Interview
Dr. Gabriella Sanchez is a sociocultural anthropologist. She is currently a visiting senior researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies: Migration and global order unit. She was previously a fellow at the Migration Policies Center of the European University Institute.
She is the author of Human Smuggling and Border Crossings published by Routledge in 2016.
Megan Kate Nelson Interview
Dr. Megan Kate Nelson is a writer and historian. She is an expert in the history of the American Civil War, the West, popular culture, and the 19th century more generally, and has written many articles about these topics.
Her most recent book (and the focus of this podcast interview) is The Three-Cornered War: The Union, the Confederacy, and Native peoples in the Fight for the West.
The Three Cornered War was rated as one of Smithsonian Magazine‘s Top Ten History Books of 2020 as well as one of Civil War Monitor‘s Top Civil War Books of 2020.
Melissa Johnson and Emily Neimeyer Interview
Dr. Emily Neimeyer is an analytical chemist and professor of chemistry at Southwestern University in Georgetown, TX. Her expertise includes the analysis of flavonoids and polyphenolic compounds, as well as mass spectrometry. Dr. Melissa Johnson is a cultural anthropologist specializing in environmental issues and race and gender in the Caribbean. She is professor and chair of the anthropology department and the race and ethnicity studies program at Southwestern University in Georgetown, TX. They are the co-authors of the article Ambivalent Landscapes: Environmental Justice in the US-Mexico Borderlands (Springer, Human Ecology, 2008).Other works mentioned in the interview:
Becoming Creole: Nature and Race in Belize (Rutgers University Press, 2018) by Melissa Johnson.
Holly Karibo and George Diaz Interview
Dr. Holly Karibo is assistant professor of history at Oklahoma State University. She is the author of Sin City North: Sex, Drugs, and Citizenship in the Detroit-Windsor Borderland (University of North Carolina Press, 2015).Dr. George T. Díaz is associate professor of history at The University of Texas, Rio Grande Valley. He is the author of Border Contraband: A History of Smuggling Across the Rio Grande (University of Texas Press, 2015).
Dr. Karibo and Dr. Díaz are co-editors of the recent volume Border Policing: A History of Enforcement and Evasion in North America (University of Texas Press, 2020).
Amy Kohout Interview
Amy Kohout is an Assistant Professor of History at Colorado College. She works on American cultural and environmental history, and she was awarded a David J. Weber Fellowship for the Study of Southwestern America at the William P. Clements Center for Southwest Studies at Southern Methodist University. With this award, Amy is currently working on her book manuscript which is tentatively titled “Taking the Field: Soldiers, Nature, and Empire on American Frontiers.”Melanie K. Yazzie Interview
Melanie K. Yazzie is an assistant professor of Native American Studies and American Studies at the University of New Mexico. She specializes in Navajo and American Indian history, political ecology, Indigenous feminism, queer Indigenous studies and theories of policing and the state. She also organizes with the Red Nation, a grassroots Native-run organization committed to the liberation of Indigenous people from colonialism and capitalism.
CJ Alvarez Interview
CJ Alvarez is Assistant Professor of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. He researches and teaches environmental history and the history of the U.S.-Mexico border. His book, Border Land, Border Water: A History of Construction on the US-Mexico Divide came out in October of 2019.